Tools for PM’s to Travel in Time

As a person who previously worked in a project management software company and monitored technology trends in the domain, I learned there are many project forecasting tools powered by predictive analytics that can cure the most nagging pains of project experts and improve project performance overall.

At the same time, I noticed that project managers wouldn’t believe that a piece of forecasting software can improve project performance. Many felt uncomfortable with the idea to share their project data. Many were skeptical. Skepticism, clearly, was the first reason to keep them away from enjoying a major benefit – the possibility to travel in time.

What is predictive analytics in project management?

If you ask me, predictive analytics in project management is software functionality that helps managers see beyond their capacity. IBM experts define predictive analytics as a way to “discover patterns in data and go beyond knowing what has happened to anticipating what is likely to happen next.”

While I understand that there are projects that last less than a year, lots of construction, aerospace, finance, or software initiatives take years to reach the finish line. People assigned to manage such complex projects lack the ability to see the project landscape until they find a proper tool. Contractors, in turn, risk delivering a pig in a poke.

That’s precisely when project forecasting tools come into play.

To understand how predictive analytics evolved in project management, let’s travel a few years back to when, where, and, most importantly, why it became a trend.

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the increased innovation-led competition has called on businesses to revamp their old approaches in favor of the new ones. Companies started to look for efficient ways to secure their competitive stronghold and advance business capacity. Sitting on huge volumes of data, many realized that the trove of available project information was a valuable asset.